Divorce in your 20s is a complicated and isolating social experience. While you’re busy signing divorce papers, your friends and peers are graduating college and just starting their careers. In a very short time, you’ve lived the married life, maybe had kids, and learned invaluable lessons that your peers lack the familiarity to understand.
We have 3 essential survival tips that can help you navigate this difficult time!
The Survival Tips
Tip #1: Enjoy the Time Alone
Adjusting to single life can be difficult. However, this can also be an excellent opportunity to rediscover old passions, hobbies, and personal interests. Maybe you enjoy gaming, movie nights with friends, or have artistic pursuits you can pick up again. Use your new “Me Time” to invest in your own happiness and spend time doing what you love.
Don’t feel pressured by friends or relatives to throw yourself back into the dating field. You’ll know when you’re ready to open yourself up to romance again. The best self-care is living life at your own pace!
Tip #2: Rebuild and Make New Friendships
Marriage and divorce can have an interesting impact on your friendships. It’s not uncommon for young spouses to merge and share friend groups during their marriage. This can make it particularly difficult for exes to connect with mutual friends after a divorce.
You are embarking on a new life, and this is a great opportunity to redevelop old friendships and even make new friendships that are unconnected to your divorce. It can be hard to build new friendships if you’re out of school, have a career, or are co-parenting a child. However, the emotional rewards are well worth the effort.
Tip #3: Learn to Ignore the Misconceptions and Judgments
It seems like everyone has an opinion when you marry or divorce young. Marriage is not common for millennials, so your well-meaning friends may lack the frame of reference to give you helpful advice. They may try to push you into dating again, or support you by saying, “You’re young! You’ll get over it!” It’s true you have plenty of life ahead of you, but that doesn’t lessen the pain you’re experiencing. Your friends and peers mean well, but try not to get depressed because their life experiences haven’t had the chance to line up with yours yet. Self-care is absolutely the goal, but try not to avoid your friends and social outings because they don’t understand what you’re going through.
Divorce can happen to anyone who takes a risk in the name of love. Age isn’t a reflection of personal maturity, and being young doesn’t mean you didn’t try to make your marriage work. Sometimes people older than you may make judgments based on misconceptions and narrow-mindedness. Your marriage was a choice you made, not a mistake, and you’ve grown from the lessons you learned about yourself and relationships in general. Be confident in your growth as a person and take your experiences with you to your next relationship.
We’re Here for You
Divorce can be a stressful and daunting process without legal representation. Contact Smith Law Offices, LLC if you’re interested in divorce representation or legal counsel. Our divorce lawyers can help you start the next chapter of your life.
Contact Smith Law Offices, LLC at (636) 400-1177 to request a consultation with our skilled divorce lawyers.